DESCRIPTION:

The seminar is designed for Ph.D. and Th.M. students in the CATS program, with room for five M.Div./M.A. students by written permission. It is a critical examination of competing methodologies in contemporary theology based on recent writing. It will examine such topics as types of ethnic theology, feminism, and liberation theology, forms of postmodernism, the nature of doctrine, and models of constructive theology.

The seminar will meet weekly for three-hour sessions. Appointed members will introduce the week's readings by giving a critical analysis with comment. All members are expected to study beforehand the required readings for the week, and take part in the discussion.

Cone, James H. Black Theology and Black Power. Orbis Books, 1997 (1969).

_________. God of the Oppressed. Orbis Books, 1975; rev. ed. 1997.

Gill, Robin, ed. Readings in Modern Theology: Britain and America. Abingdon, 1995 (selections).

Gutiérrez, G. A Theology of Liberation: History, Politics, and Salvation. Orbis, 1973 (selections).

Hart, Trevor. Faith Thinking: The Dynamics of Christian Theology. InterVarsity Press, 1996.

Lindbeck, G. A. The Nature of Doctrine: Religion & Theology in a Postliberal Age. Westminster, 1984.

Lonergan, Bernard. Method in Theology. Darton, Longman & Todd, 1972; reprint University of Toronto for Lonergan Research Institute of Regis College, Toronto, 1994 (selections).

Lundin, R.; C. Walhout; and A. C. Thiselton. The Promise of Hermeneutics. Eerdmans, 1999.

Murphy, N. Anglo-American Postmodernity: Philosophical Perspectives on Science, Religion, and Ethics. Westview Press, 1997.

Ward, Graham, ed. The Postmodern God: A Theological Reader. Blackwell, 1997 (selections).

Volf, M. Exclusion and Embrace: A Theological Exploration of Identity, Otherness, and Reconciliation. Abingdon, 1996 (selections).

Badham, Roger A., ed. Introduction to Christian Theology: Contemporary North American Perspectives. Westminster John Knox Press, 1998.

Crowe, Frederic E. Lonergan. Liturgical Press, 1992.

Dyrness, William. Emerging Voices in Global Christian Theology. Zondervan, 1994.

Ford, David F., ed. The Modern Theologians. 2nd ed. Blackwell, 1997.

Greene-McCreight, Kathryn. Feminist Reconstructons of Christian Doctrine: Narrative Analysis and Appraisal. Oxford University Press, 2000.

Livingston, J. C., F. Schüssler Fiorenza et al. Modern Christian Thought, 2: The Twentieth Century. Prentice Hall, 2000.

Thiselton, Anthony C. New Horizons in Hermeneutics. Zondervan, 1992.

_________. Interpreting God and the Postmodern Self: On Meaning, Manipulation and Promise. T. & T. Clark/Eerdmans, 1995.

All members of the seminar are expected to have studied the set readings for the week. Each week designated members of the seminar will introduce discussion, giving a brief background of the readings, summarizing the key issues, and offering a reasoned response. At the end of the quarter each member will present a paper on one of the topics covered by the seminar (25 pages for Ph.D. and Th.M students; 15 pages for masters students).

At masters level, three of the following M.Div. core requirements: STA, STB, STC, and PHIL, and written permission of the professor.